


Love is a bet

by shanimalew



Series: Fictober 2020 [9]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Genre: Fluff, Humour, Introspection, Love, Multi, Other, mentions of gambling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26933140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanimalew/pseuds/shanimalew
Summary: Napoleon is a gambler, always has been. But he always proud himself of not being like other men, who kept stupid lucky charms around. Until he realises that with the years he developed his own special charms.[Fictober 2020, Day 10]
Relationships: Illya Kuryakin/Gaby Teller, Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo/Gaby Teller, Napoleon Solo/Gaby Teller
Series: Fictober 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947211
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	Love is a bet

**_Prompt 10 Lucky Charm_ **

Napoleon is a gambler. He even thinks it is written in his personal file. But it’s true, just like Gaby’s insomnia, which sometimes keeps both him and Illya awake when she makes too much of a fuss in bed, and Illya’s psychotic episodes. He doesn’t think it’s something to hide, but he has always been a shameless person, according to Peril.

But what can he do? He’s a risk-lover.

Stealing, gambling, fucking with people he shouldn’t and in places he definitely should not, you name it. It always gives him a shot of adrenaline like nothing else.

Going against the rules is what he does best, and boy does he love it, especially now when he’s always met with a not at all surprised and irritated Illya.

Another thing he loves, irritating him while doing what he does best. Makes him feel more alive than jumping off a plane or orgasming.

Gaby says it’s their personal mating ritual, irritating each other until one of them pushes the other against a wall and they fuck. Napoleon can’t really disagree, it’s what he loves about his relationship with Illya. The risk, the fact that he can be manhandled so easily by the other, that with a push he can be thrown on the bed, Illya’s eyes darkening with pleasure as he grabs Napoleon’s hair and pushes his head back.

As he said, he loves danger.

However, what he never understood about other gamblers is the need for lucky charms. Yes, he is the first guy who asks beautiful women in casinos to blow on his dice, but that’s mostly to approach them rather than because he really thinks it will channel good luck. 

He believes in luck, the blindfolded goddess that controls everything in this short, chaotic life. He has stopped believing in God a long time ago, when he saw people dying in pointless wars while soldiers were praying to God to make them return to their loved ones. During his military service he solidified his idea that no ubiquitous, higher presence was controlling their lives to make them better, but it really was just a gambling game played by Fortune.

You could die tomorrow, next month or in ten years but you’ll never know for sure and it is not written in stone either, everything can change your fate and there’s nothing you can do to stop it or channel it.

So, lucky charms are stupid, always have been in his opinion. A weak excuse for people to try and regain control over a game, over life, when they know they don’t have it, and never will.

However, as always, life finds its ways to make Napoleon regret making such harsh judgments. And it did it in the most insidious way, by not making him realise until much later.

One day he had to leave his watch to repair, as it had stopped working. It was a present from Gaby, she had bought it in one of their first missions together. 

“It reminded me of you” she said.

He was sceptical at the time, finding that gesture rather romantic and he thought that at the time she only had eyes for Illya, as he did too. Foolish, he knows. But since then he never took it off, that watch accompanying him everywhere, from missions to when all three of them bought an apartment together in London. 

He never thought it was such a fixture in his life until he had to live two days without it. Two interminable days where everything seemed to go wrong. Gaby spilled coffee on his new suit, he lost his wallet and then got caught in a downpour without an umbrella, or money, to pay a taxi.

It was there, under the rain as he power-walked home that he thought to himself ‘This is all because my watch broke’. 

He thought that he looked just like every man with a lucky charm at the casino.

He would have laughed at himself if he wasn’t too busy sulking.

After that he started noticing more lucky charms he kept unknowingly. Starting from the bugs Illya put in each pair of his shoes. He knows they are there, and he knows Illya knows he noticed them but never takes them off, letting him put them even in his expensive Italian shoes.

At first he let him do it with the excuse of satisfying his need to keep them under control, and this way ‘keeping his overprotectiveness at bay’, but they all know it’s for a scene. He’s just like Gaby, who kept that hideous ring Illya gave her in Rome. It’s a reminder of the extent to which he will go to protect her, a symbol of his love and devotion. And he too loves how having those bugs on him makes him feel, as if Illya is always with him, ready to protect him. It makes him feel loved and taken care of like he’s never felt ever since he was a little boy. He never thought he could feel like that again, thus cherishing those bugs as if they were his greatest possession. 

But it wasn’t just that. He started noticing habits he kept that, according to his brain, would help him have a good day, especially when they were on leave. He never goes out of the house without kissing both of them and it’s also the last thing he does before falling asleep, planting a small kiss on their heads. One night he forgot to do that and he had the worst night of sleep of his life. He kept waking up every hour, moving around like a lost soul, until Illya grabbed him and encircled him, blocking both his legs and arms.

And the more he looked, the more he found objects and small rituals he hoarded over the years, watching how over time they all started revolving around his partners, which made him puke a little in his mouth. He was never the romantic type. Sure, he liked spoiling his dates but he was never the type to keep presents around, especially when he didn’t like them, or buying stupid things just because it reminded him of the other person.

But he guesses Fortune has its ways to show him how everything changes over time, even him, even after he thought he was an adult who had seen and done everything a man could have done in a lifetime. 

So he fasts Gaby’s watch on his wrist, kisses both of them on the head and goes to try his luck in a poker match with Waverly, smiling to himself. 

Because it doesn’t matter if he wins or not, he has already all the luck a man can ask for, which for a man like him luck can also be a synonym for love.


End file.
